Roman Empire’s “Google Maps” Shows Ancient Travel Times

Dutch engineer René Voorburg relaunched Omnes Viae, a tool allowing users to explore Roman road networks and calculate travel times from 2000 years ago. The service, dubbed “the Roman Empire’s Google Maps,” utilizes the Tabula Peutingeriana, a medieval copy of an older Roman road map, and now incorporates artificial intelligence.

The tool demonstrates the vast scale of the Roman Empire’s infrastructure and offers insight into how Romans planned journeys. For example, a trip between Milan (Mediolanum) and Madrid (Miaccum) took 43 days by horse, compared to 16 hours by car today.

Omnes Viae also provides information about stops along the routes, with some roads still passing by existing locations and landmarks. The service was initially active from 2011 to 2024 before being updated and relaunched.